https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-025-06972-z
Regular Article
Evaluations of the antimony-doped borate-silicate glass's optical characteristics and radiation shielding capabilities
1
Department of Physics, College of Science, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, P.O. Box 84428, 11671, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
2
Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, P.O. Box 84428, 11671, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
3
Department of Basic and Applied Science, Collage of Engineering and Technology, Arab Academy of Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, Smart Village, Giza, Egypt
4
Physics and Mathematical Engineering Department, Faculty of Electronic Engineering, Menoufia University, 32952, Menouf, Egypt
5
Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Menoufia University, 32511, Shebin El-Koom, Egypt
6
Basic Engineering Science Department, Faculty of Engineering, Menoufia University, 32511, Shebin El-Koom, Egypt
a
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Received:
8
May
2025
Accepted:
17
October
2025
Published online:
28
October
2025
A new glass was made by mean quenching with a formula of 45 B2O3-15 SiO2-20BaF- (20- x)Na2O—x Sb2O3,, wherein x = 0.0: 3.0 mol%. Replacing sodium oxide (Na2O) with antimony oxide (Sb2O3) increases the density along with molar volume of the resulting glass specimen. Band gap Eg decreases from 2.6406 eV (Sb-0.0) to a minimum of 1.8775 eV (Sb-1.5), and then slightly increases to 2.1877 eV (Sb-3.0) through indirect transitions. As the Sb content rises, the transmission coefficient (T) falls from 0.6894 (Sb-0.0) to 0.6350 (Sb-1.5), suggesting significant absorption and scattering. The metallization coefficient M for indirect transitions falls from 0.3634 (Sb-0.0) to 0.3064 (Sb-1.5), then climbs marginally to 0.3307 (Sb-3.0). This system was then thoroughly evaluated theoretically to assess its radiation shielding characteristics by using XCOM and Phy-X/PSD Software analysis. Increased Sb2O3 content led to significant enhancements in key shielding parameters, such as the coefficient for linear attenuation (µ), tenth-value layer (TVL), radiation-protective effectiveness (RPE), and effective atomic number (Zeff). The findings show an important variation in mass attenuation coefficient (µm) between the glass samples under investigation. Significantly, the glass sample with the greatest doping of Sb2O3 (Sb-3.0) demonstrated the best shielding performance, exceeding traditional shielding substances in terms of reduced TVL as well as greater µm and Zeff parameters. These findings demonstrate how well Sb2O3-doped materials block gamma rays, and they may find application in radiation protection, particularly in the nuclear as well as medical industries.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
